Tropical Storm Emilia (1988)
Tropical Storm Emilia of the 1988 Pacific hurricane season was a weak tropical cyclone that caused no effects on land or at sea. The seventh tropical cyclone and fifth named storm of the season, Emilia originated from a tropical wave that emerged off the coast of Africa, traversed the Atlantic, and emerged into the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The spawned a low pressure system that became sufficiently organized to be designated as a depression on July 27. After losing some of its deep convection, the storm restrengthened and became a tropical storm on July 29. Although feeling the effects of wind shear, Emilia reached peak strength on July 30. The storm began to gradually weaken, as the continued shear forced deep convection southeast of the low level center. As the storm continued to weaken, it became a tropical depression on August 1. Minimal thunderstorm activity remained southeast of the center and the storm weakened on August 2. Meteorological history On July 15, 1988, a tropical wave emerged off the northwest coast of Africa and moved westward across the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea, lacking signs of development. On July 24, the wave continued its quick westward passage as it continued over Central America. As it emerged into the Eastern Pacific Ocean the next day, convection began to increase; the system had good anticyclonic outflow by July 26. On July 27, satellite imagery indicated the disturbance had developed an organized circulation, and the system was sufficiently organized enough to be declared a tropical depression at 2100 UTC, while located at . The deepest convection diminished on July 28, though the organization of the system remained intact. The depression began to slowly develop, and visible satellite imagery showed that the system intensified into Tropical Storm Emilia on July 29 at 1200 UTC. Emilia and nearby Tropical Storm Fabio interacted and compromised each others' environments due to their close proximity, limiting Emilia's potential. The system began to feel the effects of shear later on July 30, with the poorly-defined low-level center of Emilia near the northwest border of the deepest convection, while continuing on its westward track. Emilia reached peak strength of 70 mph (110 km/h) at 1200 UTC which it retained until 2100 UTC. The strong shear forced the convection over the cyclone to the southeast quadrant, combined with Fabio's outflow having negative effects on the storm, continued to limit further intensification. As shearing continued over the system, Emilia turned to the west-northwest, possibly due to the movement of an upper level low on July 31. The storm became disorganized and harder to identify on infrared satellite. Visible satellite imagery soon showed all of Emilia's deep convection sheared to the east or southeast of the low level circulation, which was thus exposed. Emilia became a tropical depression on August 1 at 0000 UTC, as it had soon lost most of its convection and satellite intensity estimates were below tropical storm strength. The system soon slowed on August 2 at 0300 UTC and it could barely be detected on the last visible satellite imagery for the next few hours, due to sunset. At 2100 UTC, the last advisory had been issued, as visible satellite imagery showed the low level center of Emilia to be very disorganized, with minimal deep convection. Its remnants were tracked for the next few days, and although some deep convection returned momentarily, the system's convection soon disappeared. Impact No effects were reported in association with Emilia, as the storm remained away from land. Due to the lack of damage, the name Emilia was not retired; the name has been used since, and is scheduled for the 2013 Pacific hurricane season. References Category:Wikipedia Archives